Nomura to raise pay for 3,700 employees at Japan brokerage

Nomura Holdings Inc. will raise salaries for staff at its Japanese brokerage for a third year.

Base pay for about 3,700 employees at the Nomura Securities Co. unit will climb an average 2 percent starting in April, Kenji Yamashita, a spokesman for the Tokyo-based firm, said Monday by phone. The increase targets younger workers in an effort to contribute to Japan’s economic growth, the firm said in a statement.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been urging companies to boost salaries in a bid to spur spending and defeat deflation. Nomura’s move brings total pay increases to eligible employees to 6.8 percent over three years, according to the statement by the nation’s biggest brokerage.

The pay rise averages about ¥6,000 a month and will cost the company ¥260 million, Yamashita said. Graduates who start in April will get ¥240,000 a month, up from ¥232,300 received by the previous year’s new employees, he added.